Lesnar suspended one year by USADA

Fighters who leave the UFC and return are ordinarily subjected to a four-month waiting period during which they are tested for PEDs. However, before his fight with Mark Hunt at UFC 200, Brock Lesnar was grandfathered in, as he left the UFC before the advent of USADA.

Mark Hunt warned loudly that Lesnar was taking performance enhancing drugs, and then Lesnar failed a doping test. However, the results came back after the fight, in which Lesnar took a Unanimous Decision. An enraged Hunt has refused to fight since unless changes are made to his contract.

Lesnar tested positive for the estrogen blockers clomiphene and hydroxy-clomiphene. They are not notably performance-enhancing on their own, but would typically be taken at the end of a cycle to restore normal functioning.

USADA categorizes clomiphene and its metabolites as specified substances due to the greater likelihood of a credible non-doping explanation for a test failure. Thus Lesnar was likely looking at a one-year suspension, rather than the two-year suspension for a first-time PED test failure.

Lesnar vowed to get to the bottom of it all. A former sparring partner suggested that it could have been caused by the asthma inhaler Advair. Lesnar’s team later looked at foot cream and an eye medication as sources of the failure.

Last month the Nevada State Athletic Commission voted unanimously to suspend Lesnar for a year retroactive to the date of the fight with Hunt, overturn his win to a No Contest, and fine him $250,000 (10% of his disclosed $2,500,000 purse).

Fighters in the UFC are often subject to multiple suspensions, one from the state, provincial, or tribal regulators, and another from the US Anti-Doping Agency, the UFC’s independent drug testing body.

Now USADA reports via a release that they have concurrently suspended Lesnar for a year as well.

Lesnar, 39, tested positive for clomiphene and its metabolite, 4-hydroxyclomiphene, following an out-of-competition urine test conducted on June 28, 2016, and an in-competition urine test conducted on July 9, 2016, at UFC 200 in Las Vegas, Nev,” read the release. “Clomiphene is a prohibited substance in the category of Hormone and Metabolic Modulators and is prohibited at all times under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, which has adopted the WADA Prohibited List.”

Lesnar’s one-year period of ineligibility began on July 15, 2016, the date on which he was provisionally suspended by USADA, and is identical in length to the sanction imposed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) on December 15, 2016. In addition, the NSAC overturned Lesnar’s victory at UFC 200 to a no-contest.”